Offiical XBox (3) Launch Thread

For me, the allure of a used game market is that I can try different genres of games, and see which I like or don't like. I, too, was wondering what will happen to Gamefly. I am not sure this is the death bell of this company, but it will make it harder to survive I think.

Of the two next generation consoles, I think the edge is to Playstation 4. They seem to have a stronger focus on gaming.

The next generation of Kinect is on the XBOX One. The current iteration of that device was poorly integrated into games, and many of the games were rated poorly. I am hesitant to buy any motion controlled device or any machine that has one, for I have balance issues.

Wow.. That's a game changer if true. What gets me is that if Microsoft is doing it, then Sony is likely to do something similar... For one to take this step without the other Woukd be suicide. To tie a game to a single account on a console. If youre a consumer, why would you buy a game with no resell value if you have an alternative? If you're a developer, why would you make games for a system that will cut you out of any secondary markets, especially if there's an alternative that will protect your software from that? Sony and Microsoft more than likely will make this move in lock step.

I have a big family. I buy a game and there are likely to be 3-4 people play the game in my household alone. To pay an extra fee for each kid is unacceptable... but there's probably no alternative in the next gen.

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I suspect that unless you have multiple machines it won't be a problem. Plenty of DLC works with other users once it has been download onto the HD of the machine. So it might be more of a case that a bit like some PC games you have to enter a code that ties it to the console rather than the user?

Developers don't benefit from the used games market. They earn their money from the first sale market. So from a developers point of view might it not mean more revenue?

And by having to enter a code could help fight piracy of games, on which the developers can lose a signifigant amount of money.

But then again the PS4 can't play PS3 games, either? And did they say for definate that the Xbox One isn't backwards compatable?

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It was a statement released after the event. Basically, the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3 used POWER-based processors by IBM, which is a completely different instruction set than the x86 processors used in both of the new consoles. Emulating the Xenon / Cell processors would be a Herculean effort and would require hardware well beyond what would be feasible to put in the boxes.

According to MS, there will be some way to buy and sell used games, but it will be done online and they're just not announcing it yet. It sounds to me like they're trying to cut out Gamestop and other resellers by handling the reselling of the games themselves, maybe buying publishers' support by offering them a cut.

But what if you want to bring a game disc to a friend's house and play there? You'll have to pay a fee—and not just some sort of activation fee, but the actual price of that game—in order to use a game's code on a friend's account. Think of it like a new game, Harrison says.

"We know there is some confusion around used games on Xbox One and wanted to provide a bit of clarification on exactly what we’ve confirmed today. While there have been many potential scenarios discussed, today we have only confirmed that we designed Xbox One to enable our customers to trade in and resell games at retail. "

"Beyond that, we have not confirmed any specific scenarios.
Another piece of clarification around playing games at a friend’s house – should you choose to play your game at your friend’s house, there is no fee to play that game while you are signed in to your profile."

This ultimately doesn't bother me, because once we make the final transition to no discs all digital content, there won't be any reselling of games at all. You don't go trade in games you buy on Steam any more than you can trade in music you buy on iTunes, and that is where we're headed. This is part of that step towards the disc-less future.

You know, at some point making your customers jump through so many hoops backfires, I hope this is that point for home consoles, we've gone from simply buying the game and putting it in the box to play to a system that will require you to call the mothership and that will decide if you need to pay again for a game disc you have in your hand.

If Sony were at all smart (granted, I have seen no evidence to support that) then they would make damn sure their marketing for the PS4 highlighted the fact that you can still borrow, rent, and buy used without extra fees.

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When you're fighting to establish marketshare, I don't know if that's wise. If I'm EA or Activision or a small developer, is prefer the platform that would protect my software from piracy and second hand markets as a rule. I might even offer extras on that platform to encourage adoption. That's why I say it's more than likely that both are doing similar things to protect developers. If one is doing it, it's likely the other will too.

Well, filtering through the white noise and hyperbole, he does make some valid points. I, too, think this is the end for XBox in particular and quite possibly Microsoft in general. They have made a recent string of strategic errors for their future plans that I think will spiral them into the realms of irrelevance. I hate to see Sony succeed, but I must admit, MS handed them this one on a silver platter.

This ultimately doesn't bother me, because once we make the final transition to no discs all digital content, there won't be any reselling of games at all. You don't go trade in games you buy on Steam any more than you can trade in music you buy on iTunes, and that is where we're headed. This is part of that step towards the disc-less future.

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There is much more pricing parity on those platforms as well. If the used market is gone, then i hope there will be more and better sales like Steam does...thats not likely because these games will have to support retailers too.